Where Sharps Meet Squares

Thursday Night Two-Fer

What a night for basketball last night. Harden was obviously the story of the night, as he put up a huge game in a back and forth game vs. Detroit. I would have called Harden’s stat line last night “Kobe-esque” (37 pts on 14-25 shooting) until I noticed that Harden also had 12 assists.

Hurricane Sandy has spared us from discovering that both the Knicks and Nets will be huge disappointments this year, so we’ve only got one NBA game tonight.

1. The Oklahoma City Thunder +2 @ San Antonio Spurs and the under 204.

This is just a pure back to back pick. The Spurs played last night, and had to grind out a win vs. New Orleans in New Orleans. 24 hours later, they have to play at home vs. the defending West champs. Now I know all the advanced metrics loved the Spurs last year, and I’m one of the guys who believes in said metrics, but at the same time, they did actually lose to the Thunder in the Western finals last year, in a series that wasn’t in all that much doubt after Game 5. Spurs -2 sounds about right without a back to back situation. Accordingly, San Antonio is the pick here.

I know Kevin Martin is a shadow of James Harden, but generic age related improvement from Westbrook, Durant, and Ibaka should cover up for that some. Just think how good they’d be if they had a good player instead of Kevin Martin. Oh well. The same reasoning goes for the under by the way. Back to backs tend to bring in the under, and 204 is a fairly high total to begin with.

2. Kansas City Chiefs +7 @ San Diego Chargers and the under 41.

I’m going to go down with the ship here I suppose. I just can’t bring myself to believe that this team is as bad as they’ve looked this year, and the previous five. The Chiefs remain my pick for the worst team in football, and the Chargers are playing to show they’re not total chumps. All the analytics like the Chargers to cover here, and other than the fact that the Chargers stink, I can’t think of a reason to disagree.

DEGEN picks the Chiefs and the under 41. I’m generally a fan of the under on this game, with or without DEGEN however. It’s probably my favorite pick of the night.